“He told me to start this way,” Heidi Baker said in tears, kneeling on the floor. This is how the missionary to Mozambique for the past four decades normally starts her sermons. On her knees, asking for God to breathe His fresh word into her for the moment.

“God is saying that you have bread and water but you are not feeding the hungry and the thirsty – that is why they’re dying.

“When I say I know how hunger feels, I really know what it feels like. But many of you here don’t. Many of you have even lost your appetite.

“Cry out for an appetite!”

Reading from Luke 14 on the Parable of the Great Banquet at Kingdom Invasion 2018, she continued to call for self-examination in the light of a world in both financial and spiritual poverty.

“Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the Kingdom of God. The master of the banquet was angry that there was a lack of hunger from those invited. It angers God when He sees a lack of hunger.

“In the end it was the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame – those from the streets and alleys and roads and country lanes who filled the hall.”

She called forth anyone who wanted to rekindle their appetite for the things of God, and the front of the stage was quickly filled with many, whom she proceeded to lead in prayer.

Then reading from John 6, she exhorted the crowd to remember the words of Jesus that He is the Bread of Life, the bread of God that has come down from Heaven and gives life to the world.

As the Church, we have been given this bread to share with everyone. “It’s time to share, Church, not talk about sharing – but to go and share!” Baker urged.

“Billy Graham knew better than most of us that people were really lost and dying, and the love of God compelled him to go and bring the Bread of Life to them.

““When the Church starts knowing who we are we will start to share – what’s compelling you?”

The Church doesn’t always recognise the poor in our midst; we’ve been duped by those who wear fine clothes and drive nice cars.

But the Church doesn’t always recognise the poor in our midst. In fact, we’ve been duped by those who wear fine clothes and drive nice cars – fooled by the disguises in our first world nations.

“What if the poor are billionaires? As long as they don’t have Jesus they are dying, and you have food!

“It’s time for the Singaporean Church to share again – we need to rise up and go, and never stop going.

“Go as a banker; go as a lawyer, go as a priest or a prophet or football player or scientist. It’s time to feed the hungry and compel the lost to come home again.”

She then shared a story from her ministry in Mozambique. After bringing bread and other refreshments to a church in one of the villages they serve in, her team found themselves being stoned by several villagers who did not share the same faith.

“These men were saying they were going to kill me this time – and I watched as my spiritual son stretched out his arms and took the beating and stoning for me.”

They were able to get away, and even dropped the charges against the ones who had instigated this, but this was Baker’s point: “Some of you are afraid of speaking to people in the street, people at work, people who are not even going to beat you – you’re going to be alive even after you share the Gospel – and you won’t even share bread with them!”

“God wants to open your eyes to what’s possible. Go to the highways and the byways to call the poor and the lost to the master’s banquet. He wants His house to be full.

“Beloved of God, this is not a nice little outreach. It’s every single one of us stopping every day to feed someone bread, and there’s an amazing abundance of His glorious fresh bread.

“Jesus died that we may have water and bread. A Jesus movement starts when we go and love like Jesus.”

Kingdom Invasion 2018 will run until Friday at Singapore Expo Halls 7/8. Night sessions starting from 7:30pm are free, subjected to availability of seats. For more details, visit www.kingdominvasion.sg.